A Manny Ramirez Fact Very Few People Know

So, apparently one of my friends picked the music Manny Ramirez has played when he comes to the plate during home games.

Impossible you say? Think again.

For the seven of you who are loyal Basebloger readers, you'll recall my trip to Fenway a month ago. During that post, I mentioned how I thought it was odd that out of every song on the planet, Manny strides to the plate to "Zombie" by the Cranberries. I assumed it would be some Latin song, or perhaps a rap song, but not a 1995 chart-topper by an Irish alt-rock band. Well, now I know why.

The story begins with a guy by the name of Scott Rosier. He works in sales for the Baltimore Orioles, and I know him through fantasy baseball. Despite how he looks in this Mustache Day 2008 picture (courtesy of "It's Not Wrong") he is neither a professional wrestler, police officer, or serial killer.

So apparently Scott was pretty chummy with the guy who is in charge of music at Camden Yards. One night they were out at a bar when Scott suggested to the guy that he play "Zombie" whenever the opposing team's pitching coach visited the mound (playing off the "in your head" lyrics). The guy loved the idea and the story goes, he immediately put it to practice while the Red Sox were in town.

Prepare yourself, because this is where the story gets fantastic.

It's the middle innings. Manny's in left, and his pitcher is in a jam, so the Sox pitching coach heads to the mound when the song comes over the PA system. Apparently (although not surprisingly, given Manny's penchant for becoming distracted at crucial points in a baseball game) he was simply mesmerized by what he heard...so much so that the next day, he actually went into the O's clubhouse, tracked down the team's music guy and asked what the song was because he absolutely loved it (and he communicated all this in Spanglish, mind you). Well, the guy ended up burning Manny a CD of "Zombie" which he proceeded to take back to Fenway and it's been his "now batting" music ever since.

That, my friends, is a story.

It's In The Books

The first half is officially over and things are starting to return to normal. Chipper Jones is no longer flirting with .400 and the Tampa Bay Rays are no longer in first place in the AL East. Still, a lot can happen in the final 65-or-so games of the '08 season and many of the major awards races are still really close. But at this point, these guys have the upper hand...

AL MVP - Josh Hamilton (.310, 21 homeruns, 95 RBI)

I had to count some dangling chads on this one, because Hamilton and teammate Ian Kinsler are separated by an even smaller margin than Dubbya and Al Gore were in 2000. Both hitters are to thank for a surprisingly good Texas team, which enters the break above .500. Both have been incredible run producers, and both have been good in the clutch. I'm giving the edge to Hamilton though because in my opinion it's inherently harder to drive in runs than to score runs. Good pitchers bear down with men on base and in scoring position and bad pitchers pitch around the middle of the order. But no pitcher has been able to contain Hamilton, who enters the break on pace to drive in 162 runs this season. Only 11 players in major league history have driven in more in a single season and with the exception of Manny Ramirez in 1999, all of them played before 1938. That's how prolific Hamilton's been. That's why he's my mid-season MVP. Also receiving votes: Kinsler, Carlos Quentin, Grady Sizemore

NL MVP - Hanley Ramirez (.311, 23 homeruns, 80 runs, 23 steals)

What doesn't this guy do well? The answer is...not much. He's one of just two players at the break with 20+ homeruns and 20+ steals (a man named Grady is the other). He has more bombs, steals, and runs scored than Lance Berkman (and is on a competitive team) and has a higher average, more runs, and more steals than Chase Utley. At the beginning of the season, I was guilty of thinking that without Miguel Cabrera, Ramirez's numbers would drop off a bit. I won't make that mistake again. Also receiving votes: Berkman, Utley, Albert Pujols

AL Cy Young - Justin Duchscherer (10-5, 1.82 ERA, 0.87 WHIP)

Perhaps this is my Oakland bias shining through here. Or perhaps it's the fact that I like pitchers who don't allow baserunners. JD's WHIP is silly. A starter allowing 6 baserunners for every seven innings pitched is absolutely unheard of these days. And if you want further proof that he's been the best of the best, look at his game log. His "worst" outing of the year is either his May 18 start in Atlanta (3 earned over 5) or his May 1 start in LA (6 runs, but only one earned over 5, in a win against the Angels). Who cares if he doesn't get many strikeouts? His stuff is dirty. Also receiving votes: Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Mariano Rivera

NL Cy Young - Edinson Volquez (12-3, 2.29 ERA, 126 K's)

Talk about your classic case of "boy, that trade sure benefitted both teams," Volquez has been to the Reds what Josh Hamilton has been for the Rangers. He's leading the league in ERA, he's second in wins, and he's tied for third in K's. And you thought we'd be saying that about Johan Santana this time of year? Also receiving votes: Tim Lincecum, Dan Haren, Cole Hamels, Brandon Webb

AL ROY - Evan Longoria (.275, 16 homeruns, 53 RBI)

As good as advertised, if not better. He's become Delmon Young before Delmon Young has become Delmon Young. Plus he runs a little bit (6 steals), plays a magnificent third base, and was selected to the All-Star game after just 300 big league at-bats. Not bad. Also receiving votes: Jacoby Ellsbury, David Murphy

NL ROY - Geovanny Soto (.288, 16 homeruns, 56 RBI)

So Evan Longoria is an All-Star, huh? That's nice. Soto is an All-Star starter! He's far and away the cream of the NL newbie crop, and he's leading all rookies in OPS on a first-place team. The one chink in his armor? He's only thrown out 15 of 58 base stealers- third worst for qualifying NL catchers. As long as he keeps raking, I'm sure the Cubbies will deal with it. Also receiving votes: Kosuke Fukodome, Jair Jurrjens

AL LVP - Paul Konerko (.217, 9 homeruns, 34 RBI)

Yes, he's missed about 25 games. But the White Sox have missed his big bat in the other 68 he's actually played in. I was about to write that PK is a guy who's been a lock for 35 and 100+ batted in for the last few years, but that's actually not true. His homerun total will likely drop for a 4th straight year this season, his average- for a third straight year, and his RBI total- for a second straight year. These are surprising trends for a guy who turned just 32 in spring training. Also receiving votes: Robinson Cano. Edgar Renteria, Chone Figgins

NL LVP - Andruw Jones (.164, 2 homeruns, 10 RBI)

Usually, I don't like to give these awards to guys who've been hurt, but Jones has redefined what it means to be terrible. During a 7-year stretch from 2000 to 2006, he averaged more than 37 homeruns and 109 RBI a season. Last year when he fell off to 26 and 94 with a .222 average, I thought it was an abberation and so did the Dodgers. Now, I'm not so sure because he looks so absolutely clueless at the plate. Case and point- he's striking out once every 2.8 at bats this year and has twice as many wiffs as hits! He'll be a free agent at the end of the year and his list of potential suitors will be exponentially smaller than everyone would have imagined just a few years ago. Like Konerko, his rapid decline is also surprising considering he's just 31. Also receiving votes: Eric Byrnes, Ryan Zimmerman, Khalil Greene

AL Cy Anora - Joe Blanton (5-12, 4.96 ERA, 1.42 WHIP)

At the beginning of the season the thinking was, the A's would try to move Blanton, a useful innings eater, to a playoff contender right around the trade deadline. Now, they'd probably have a hard time trading him for a bucket of pearls and an L-screen. Blanton, while still making all his starts, has been remarkably hittable this season, although it's worth noting his secondary numbers from his '08 campaign are strikingly similar to his '06 campaign when he won a career-high 16 games. That ain't gonna happen this time around. And with all the young arms in Oakland (Sean Gallagher, Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Henry Rodriguez, Gio Gonzalez) JB's days as a starter in the Bay Area may be limited. Also receiving votes: Erik Bedard, Livan Hernandez

NL Cy Anora - Aaron Harang (3-11, 4.76 ERA, 1.40 WHIP)

Harang was one of the few guys in baseball who has been consistentlty good, consistently healthy, and consistently unnoticed for the last few years. Unfortunately all three of those are out the window this year. He's on the DL now with a bad forearm. It's going to take a miracle for him to get to .500. And he's unlikely to hit 200 K's or 200 IP for the first time since 2005. Oh by the way, he's already allowed 20 homeruns. Also receiving votes: Barry Zito, Brett Myers, Bronson Arroyo (huh, maybe that's why the Reds are so bad), Roy Oswalt

C.C. And Richie Rich

With the trade deadline still 22 days away, we've already seen two potentially race-changing deals involving two potential Game 1 World Series starters...C.C. Sabathia to the Brewers for slugging outfielder Matt LaPorta and 3 other prospects, and Rich Harden to the Cubs along with reliever Chad Gaudin for Sean Gallagher and 3 other prospects.

The Cubs were the better team before these deals were completed and because they made a better trade than Milwaukee did, should be the better team the rest of the season (and next year).

Yes, Harden carries an injury risk. But ever since missing a month with a strained shoulder muscle, he's been healthy, he's been as good as anybody, and in general his ceiling is much higher than Sabathia's. True, Sabathia is the reigning Cy Young award winner and true, he is a workhorse, but all things being equal, Harden has Santana-esque stuff without Santana-esque mileage on his arm, whereas Sabathia is "7 innings pitched, 3 earned, 7 K's, 2 walks" good.

Another reason the Cubs made the better trade is because, unlike Sabathia, they're not renting Harden for the next 2 and a half months. Harden's deal doesn't expire until 2009 and being the bigger-market team, the Cubs have a much better chance of re-upping with him than the Brew-Crew does with Sabathia.

And the final reason the Cubs made out better is because unlike Milwaukee, they didn't give up any front-line prospects to make their move. Matt LaPorta could be a poor man's Ryan Braun, and soon. Add him to Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez, and Cleveland's lineup could be in pretty good shape for the forseeable future. The Cubs gave up Gallagher, speedster Eric Patterson, Matt Murton, and minor league catcher Josh Donaldson- none of whom were big pieces of the Chicago puzzle this year, although Gallagher has the best pedigree.

That's not to say that the A's got a bunch of chumps, though. In Gallagher, they get a strikeout-an-inning guy who will likely benefit from his move to the pitcher-friendly Bay Area. Patterson may take over for Mark Ellis in a year or so, Murton gives them a strong arm and bat to play alongside youngsters Travis Buck and Carlos Gonzalez in the Oakland outfield, and Donaldson is still a few years away.

Say what you will about "Moneyball" and Billy Beane. But as an A's fan, I definitely don't hate this trade. Beane has a knack for getting rid of good pitchers at just the right time. For proof, see Mulder, Mark...Hudson, Tim...and Zito, Barry. He got good value for each of those guys, as he did for Dan Haren last winter. Now, he sells Harden when he's healthy and his value is at its highest and although he didn't get a blue-chip prospect, he did get four serviceable players in return.

What'll be really interesting to see now is (a) if Oakland moves any other players (Huston Street?, Joe Blanton?) and (b) if St. Louis makes any moves in the next 3 weeks to keep up with the Joneses in the division. After all, they're just 3.5 back (a half game up on the Brewers) and starting to get their pitchers healthy.

One final thought. What's going through your head if you're a hitter on the lowly Reds, Pirates, or Astros right now?

Just My Latest Jinx

If you recall, I priased Jay Bruce's hot start back on June 2nd. At the time, he had an OPS approaching 1.700 and a 1:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his first six major league games.

My how times have changed.

His OPS has dropped 900 points, his strikeout-to-walk has done a virtual 180 (it's now 2.5:1), and in the 26 games since my post, he has just three multi-hit efforts.

For further perspective, consider this. The upper line shows Bruce's pre-post numbers. The lower line shows how he's fared post-post (which is a funny compound word).

13 for 22 (.591), 10 runs, 5 XBH, 6 RBI, 6 walks, 1 strikeout

21 for 97 (.216), 8 runs, 5 XBH, 8 RBI, 7 walks, 32 strikeouts

What's ironic about all this is that "the real" Jay Bruce is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of where he is right now with his torrid and frigid stretches included. Over 600 AB's it works out to roughly a .286, 20 homerun, 71 RBI, 91 run, 10 steal season...not bad even for a highly-touted 21-year-old. I just wish I could use my powers for good rather than evil.

I Guess I've Officially Taken Sides

My wife and I are in Boston right now, visiting friends. It's my first time in New England in years, and last night, my first-ever trip to Fenway Park. And I think I can sum up the experience in one word, "wow."

First of all, we show up around 5 o'clock- two hours before first pitch. And yet, the whole area outside the ballpark is absolutely packed. Yawkey Way, the shops, the sports bars...all jam-packed...and it's a random Wednesday in late-June.

We ate at "Game On!" and there was an hour wait to be seated, which was no problem because there was plenty of space in their standing-room-only section (although it made eating nachos interesting). Another thing that struck me inside the bar was the number of people in Red Sox jerseys or some type of Red Sox attire in general. With only a handful of exceptions, literally every person in there (again, we're talking I-sure-hope-there-isn't-a-fire-in-the-kitchen-because-someone's-getting-trampled-if-we-all-have-to-evacuate crowded) had on some sort of Sox stuff. Having grown up near Baltimore going to Camden Yards, this was a completely new phenomenon to me.

We finished our meal right around first pitch and made our way over to the park right at 7:05 to see Randy Johnson vs. Tim Wakefield, or as our friend Dave (aka Ezekiel) put it, AARP night. We had very good seats on the third base side of home plate a few sections up and I'll say this about the two hurlers. Johnson can still bring it and Wakefield's stuff breaks about 3 feet. The Big Unit was at 91-92 the whole night but hit 94 a few times later in the game and looks like he's 8 feet tall on the mound. Meanwhile, T-Dub threw one curveball that was 59 miles an hour and made, among others, Connor Jackson look like he was hitting a high-arc softball pitch for the first time ever. Oh, by the way, his knuckler is good too.

Next, to the player introductions, because a few of them were funny. Manny Ramirez (who I'm told came up to Afroman's "Because I Got High" a few seasons ago), chose "Zombie" by the Cranberries. Seriously. Every time #24 and his halfway-down-his jersey-dreads sauntered to the plate, some lady was singing "in your heaaaa-d, in your he-ah-ah-ed...zombie! zombie!" Weird. My favorite had to be Dustin Pedroia's plate music, "Dre. Day" by Dr. Dre. First of all, great song. Second of all, really funny for a balding, white, 5-foot-tall middle infielder.

As for the game, the Sox got some contributions from some unlikely places- Coco Crisp, Brandon Moss, and Kevin Cash, whose 3-run blast in the 8th all-but put it out of reach. Craig Hansen started the 9th and was wild, so with two outs and the bases loaded in a 5-0 game, Terry Francona came out to the mound to summon Jonathan Papelbon, whose face is in every Dunkin Donuts shop in New England. As soon as he started to walk in from the bullpen, they played "Wild Thing" by Steppinwolf and I have to admit, I kind of wished he had summoned me to come in and pitch. I was so pumped up, I think I probably could have touched 90 on the gun. Anyway, Papelbon got loose to "Shipping Up To Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys, the song he made famous during last season's playoffs. Then he struck out poor Chad Tracy on a series of 97 mile an hour fastballs. Poor guy didn't have a chance. Then, shocker, Fenway Park and it's nearly 40-thousand fans who all stayed until the last out, went nuts.

We visited the team shop after the game just for fun and it, too, was packed! Our friend Monica ended up buying a pink Red Sox thong for a friend's upcoming bachelorette party (sure it was for a friend, Mon) which was also funny. Then we left.

So getting back to the title of this post. I've never been to Yankee Stadium. But I don't think I can imagine a better environment to watch a baseball game than Fenway. Maybe it's the same in the Bronx as it was here last night, but I find it hard to imagine. And although I'm still officially an Oakland A's fan, I must consider myself leaning Massachusetts in the whole Yanks/Sox rivalry, largely thanks to my experiences last night.

Time To Go Closet-Digging

Remember these from 1993? The All-Star game is in Baltimore. Cito Gaston is managing the AL. Mike Mussina is sitting in the bullpen, waiting, waiting, waiting, but never gets called on to pitch. Gaston, instead, uses his own closer, Duane Ward to finish off the NL. T-shirts are promptly born.

Well, he's back, so I'd expect these shirts to start popping up all over Charm City too, especially July 21-24 when the Jays come to town.

I'll say this. I had no idea the O's were 4.5 games up on Toronto for 4th place in the AL East and just a game back of the Yankees for 3rd. Impressive!

Being Curt About Schilling

Right shoulder surgery will end Curt Schilling's 2008 season before it ever started, and it may end his career. That's all according to #38 himself. Assuming he has thrown his last pitch (personally I think it's too early to say he has) let's examine his Hall-of-Fame resume so far.

His 3,116 career strikeouts are good for 14th all-time. There are four people ahead of him who aren't Hall of Famers, although Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux will be five years after they retire. Roger Clemens is the third, and he's anyone's guess. The fourth is Bert Blyleven and he has nearly 600 more.

What Schilling really lacks is an impressive number of regular season wins, largely due to injuries and his decade spent in Philadelphia. His 216 W's don't even put him in the top-75. He's in Charlie Hough/Kenny Rogers/Kevin Brown territory with that win total, although there are more than a dozen pitchers who got into the Hall with even fewer victories.

He won 20 or more three times. That's also good, but not great. And the fact that he was never a Cy Young Award winner doesn't help either, although he was runner-up on three separate occasions and finished fourth in the voting another time. He appeared in six All-Star games, but never more than three in a row, so he wasn't exactly a staple there.

Up until this point, I'd say he's a long-shot for Cooperstown. But what I haven't mentioned is what's he done in October. And what he's done in October has been exceptional. He has three World Series rings, an 11-2 career postseason record, 2.23 postseason ERA, and 120 strikeouts in 133 1/3 IP. His totals for wins, winning percentage, strikeouts, and innings pitched all rank in the top-10 all-time, meaning it is not unreasonable to make the argument that Schilling has been one of the best postseason pitchers ever. And it is for that reason that I think Schilling deserves a place in the Hall.

He may not be a first-ballot guy. And he may not be on the level of contemporaries Johnson, Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz or Rivera, but Schilling still deserves a spot, even if he never throws another pitch.

Statistical Oddities

Today is June 11. Most teams have played about 65 games, meaning we're roughly 40% through the 2008 regular season. Yet, there's still some awfully weird stuff happening, aside from the fact that Tampa has a 3.5 game lead over Oakland for the AL Wild Card.

Here are a few of my favorite examples...

*Milton Bradley, a career .278 hitter, has the highest batting average in the American League (.338).

*In nearly 220 at-bats, Chipper Jones is still hitting .420. He needs to hit approximately .387 the rest of the season to finish up at .400.

*The top 2 pitchers in the AL in wins right now (Cliff Lee and Joe Saunders) already have more wins this season than they did all of last season.

*Entering this season, Edinson Volquez had given up 64 earned runs in 80 career innings. This season, he's given up 14 earned runs in 81 innings, en route to the lowest ERA (1.56) in baseball.

*Ryan Howard has 38 more strikeouts (89) than hits (51).

*Miguel Cabrera is tied for 29th in the league in homeruns, 17th in RBI, and 32nd in batting average. Last year he was 5th, 3rd, and 8th.

*Adam Dunn and Jack Cust are hitting .240 and .247 respectively but their on base percentages are .406 and .407 respectively!

*Four of the top-10 strikeout pitchers in baseball (Sabathia, Harang, Billingsley, Burnett) have losing records.

*Jacoby Ellsbury has more walks than strikeouts and more steals than RBI.

*Joey Votto is on pace to commit 20 errors this season at first base. Kevin Youkilis has one error at first base in 185 games over the last two seasons.

*And perhaps my favorite...Nate McLouth has more extra base hits this season (37) than every single All-Star from 2007 except Chase Utley (41).

Johnny On The Spot

Even though his team is playing more than 1200 miles away in Texas, I'd be willing to bet if there's a brawl in tonight's Orioles/Blue Jays game in Toronto, Jonny Gomes will find a way to be in it. After all, he manages to be a part of every other fight.

He's #31 in the picture above, pounding on Coco Crisp, who charged the mound after being plunked by James Shields, who hit Crisp because Crisp (in the minds of most members of the Rays) slid in too hard on Akinori Iwamura in Wednesday night's game, who is coincidentally the same guy victimized by a hard slide in spring training by New York Yankee Shelly Duncan, a slide which prompted another brawl, which also featured Gomes (got all that?).

After hearing about the brawl in the car last night, my initial reaction was that the Rays (in a Teddy KGB voice from the movie "Rounders") "von't be pooshed a-round" anymore...that their newfound aggressiveness and penchant for fisticuffs are somehow derived from a decade of doormat-dom. Turns out, I'm right. Quoting Shields, "We've been getting stomped around the last 10 years and it isn't going to happen anymore."

Jonny Gomes will probably try to sucker-punch me for saying this but Shields wasn't on the 63-99 Tampa team from 1998 (led by Fred McGriff and Rolando Arrojo). He was a 16-year-old attending Hart High School in Santa Clarita, Calirfornia, where he was most likely not a Rays fan.

With Apologies To Jay Bruce Owners...

Sorry, but I'm about to jinx the heck out of your boy.

In his first 6 games, JB has 13 hits, 6 walks (compared to just one strikeout), 3 doubles, 2 homeruns, 6 RBI, 2 stolen bases, he's scored 10 times, and his OPS is 1.690.

Over the remainder of this season, that projects to a .591/37/111 line with 185 runs scored, 56 doubles, 37 steals, and 111 walks. Oh, and he's been able to legally purchase alcohol for 2 months.

Does anybody know why Dusty Baker stuck with Corey Patterson as long as he did?